How the mothership took photo of the comet?

[astralliquid]

As I was reading this, something was bothering me as I don't know much how all space things work<br /><br />http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/12088473.htm <br /><br />I know the Comet is travelling at a very fast speed. The mothership release the impactor and stay on the side to capture photos.. now this part of the story kept me thinking... <br /><br />"Scientists are waiting for the dust from the larger-than-expected debris cloud to settle before they can get their first glimpse at the inside of the comet and determine the size and depth of the crater. They said the crater was larger than house-size and possibly as big as a football stadium." <br />" <br /><br />The mothership is "waiting for the dust to settle??" (and then see how big the crater is) wtf?? wouldn't the comet zoomed past it before the mothership can even take any photos after the impact? <br /><br />or what..the mothership travel at a speed parallel to the comet like 2 speeding cars along the highway going at the same speed? (how and why the mothership knows which path the comet is heading and follow it?)<br /><br />Someone please tell me how and at what stage the camera start taking photos and tansmit data back. <br />I don't get it.<br /><br />

 

[spacechump]

The mothership was sent on a trajectory to end up in front of the comet. Once the impactor was released the mothership did a trajectory correction maneuver to prevent it from being smacked by the comet as well, essentially changing its orbital path compared to the comet. The comet passed the mothership as it collected data about the pre-impact, impact and post-impact. Even after the impact science were hoping that there would be enough settling of the ejecta to get good images of the crater as the spacecraft continued on its our orbit that takes it away from the comet. What they ment was that they would continue to monitor the comet even after the rendezvous.

 

[astralliquid]

"Even after the impact science were hoping that there would be enough settling of the ejecta to get good images of the crater as the spacecraft continued on its our orbit that takes it away from the comet. What they ment was that they would continue to monitor the comet even after the rendezvous."<br /><br />How can the spacecraft "continue" to monitor the comet when is as flew passed so fast it? Do you mean the spacecraft is in the orbit of the comet?<br />

 

[spacechump]

No the spacecraft is not in orbit around the comet. But it did continue to track the comet even after it passed in the same way it was able to image the comet as it approached it....it pointed its instruments at it.

 

[CalliArcale]

There is, of course, a limit to how long Deep Impact can usefully observe the comet; it's getting smaller and smaller in its cameras. But those cameras are fixed to telescopes, so it's worth looking. One of the things they're looking for is not just the size of the crater but how long the plume persists and what overall changes are made in the coma. <br /><br />EDIT: mrmorris posted in M&L that they're not trying to see the crater with Deep Impact at all. They're watching with SWIFT, a combination gamma-ray, infrared, and visible light telescope in Earth orbit. (SWIFT was actually built to detect and autonomously slew to observe gamma ray bursts, but it's been used for lots of other things too as its instrumentation is very sensitive.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>